


Highly Advanced Intergay Communication

by R1COOR2



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Bisexual Sokka (Avatar), Bisexual Suki (Avatar), F/F, Fluff, Gay Zuko (Avatar), Gen, Lesbian Yue (Avatar), M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 19:34:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29495142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R1COOR2/pseuds/R1COOR2
Summary: What you need to know:*Zuko and Yue starts as first and second years at Takutown gymnasium. They meet a lot of new and old faces, things happen.*I don't know how to write summaries okay?!*This is mainly a Zukka and Yuki (Yue/Suki) fic. Why Yuki you ask? They doesn't even have any screentime together in the original source material!? Well i just think they could fit together. Also Toph is ace queen, kataang is the cutest thing ever and zukka is obligatory so who else is there to ship with? Don't take this wrong, also Yue gets a lot of character and I promice I won't kill her eventually. Like, I love angst but not THAT much angst.*This is an alternative universe for atla where all the nations exists as ethnical groups but i am making a lot of references to modern popular culture. Because why not.*This is my first fanwork ever, and english is not even my first language, prepare for some typos. (but probably not a lot)*Also my writing style is probably extreamly sarchastic and messy because I normally only write angry notes in my diary or something. But who knows maybe I get better.*Sorry for the title*Also if anyone actually reads and likes this I don't know what I'll do
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Suki/Yue (Avatar), Yue & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15





	1. There used to be a bus station here

**Yue**

Takutown. What a place. She had visited here a couple of months ago but it was still a bit of a chock to walk of the train with one enormous backpack on her back, one smaller on her belly and her aunt Yoni carrying an enormous bag propped full with clothes, books, and her medium sized computer. Yoni, her favourite auntie, who were just a couple of years older than her helped her lift of the heavy bag of the train.

Yoni made the same choice as Yue, study in another city than Northern Water City if you want to get anywhere in life. She had heard all of Takutown from Yoni over the years, and since she decided to start second year of gymnasium* (secondary school) last term, her cousins Sokka and Katara had called over skype every weekend to be sure she was ready for the cultural chock of moving from a small Water tribe town (even though it is the biggest northern water tribe town there is) to the multicultural chaos of Takutown.

It was not as big as Omashu, but it was about a quater its size. Which is big when you compare to the capitol of the United Nations. She had been to Omashu once, and it was way worse than Takutown. She couldn’t even imagine Ba Sing Se, it being the biggest city in the nation, three times bigger than Omashu. Okay. Time to stop thinking about other cities.

_Yue, you got places to be and this train is leaving any minute and you need to get of!!!_

Anyways, Takutown here we go.

“Yoni, be careful with that one, my computer barley got in the bag and I don’t want my baby to get hurt” she exclaimed as Yoni dropped the heavy bag on the platform.

“First, calling it your baby is weird” Yoni said through a grimace. Yeah, the bag was pretty heavy and making your aunt carry it just because she is 5 cm taller than you was bit of a dick move.

“On second thought it is not weird, I expected nothing less from a damn computer nerd” Yoni said with a smile. “Let’s switch, if you are getting that “baby” to the dorm way up in the gymnasium, you are carrying it by yourself”

“Unfair! You are the older one”

“And you go to the gym twice a week and practice Taijiquan the other five days”

“That is exaggerating, and you also practice Taijiquan!”

“Well I haven’t trained in a while! Either case you are better trained than me, I can even take the backpack you so fashionably wear on your belly”

“Uuuuhh okay”

After the exchange of bags the real challenge began… finding the bus station without being left on the sidewalk mashed down by the mass of people. It was late summer and all the people returning to the city after their vacation seemed to decide collectively that today, the Thursday afternoon one week before the schools started up, was the best day to stroll around in the city with your friends and family. And in the middle of the chaos of t-shirts and shorts stood two Northtribers who both were overdressed in their long-sleeved flannel shirts and work trousers. One of them were completely lost, the other one 100% sure they had built a new bus station since last spring because this concrete hill used to be the place to get on the bus… it also used to be the place where youths could buy alcohol from dealers and at least once a week the police were there to collect drunks or attempting to get a lead the drug network from the many addicts who hanged out there… Yoni looked like she suddenly realised why they tore down the old bus station and built a new one.

An hour later, they had eaten two ice-creams each and stopped several times in order to switch the bags so they both carried the same amount, because justice. Then they found the damn bus station. It was newly built, because no addicts or rebellious youths had dared to start hang around there yet.

They got on a small bus and managed to get a good double-seat in the bus. Yoni was occasionally kicking her in the leg because she had to sit with the bag with the precious baby in her lap, its crushing weight torturing her legs.

**Zuko**

Reasons no #1 to not ever travel with uncle: he never had idea where there was.

They had both been away the whole summer, living with his mom and his half-sister in Black cliffs. He was now moving to his uncle’s apartment in Takutown because… family reasons.

The solution according to his uncle and mom was to move back to his hometown after five year’s absence. Last time he had been here his family had been intact, or as good as it had ever been. Then his mom divorced and moved to Black cliffs, and his dad got worse by the years as greed and hunger for power rooted deep inside him. The big company and the family fortune was transferred to his account and they then moved from Takutown to Caldera city to be closer to dad’s work.

And everything spiralled.

In summary, Zuko got depressed by the constant abuse and the press his father put on him. Eventually he cracked and left, reaching out to his mother for the first time in years and started living with her over the summer. But… it was not a permanent solution. He loved his mom, he really did, but he could see the stress he was putting her through. She had a 4 year old daughter now, and seeing Zuko, her 17 years old failure every day, was too much for both of them.

He decided to live with uncle instead, and visiting mom om the breaks sounded better than living with her. He had finally read up his primary school grades enough to start in the first year of Takutown gymnasium.

A new, fresh start. Moving back to your hometown. With people who used to know you as a child. No pressure. No stress.

Shit.

He actually has to answer for all the stupid things he did and said as a kid.

Whatever case, they were lost.

The whole city was cramped with people and they spent a lot of time walking around because uncle thought he had to ‘take in his surroundings after the years of absence’. He was the one who had to carry the bags either way. Well, _his_ bags. Uncle was kind of a minimalist and only had a backpack with belongings. Zuko to his defence, was permanently moving to uncle’s place and naturally had more stuff to carry. Well, he was only living there on the weekends since uncle’s apartment was really small and he thought it was better if Zuko spent more time with people his own age.

So on the weeks there was the gymnasium dorm life for him. Yippee. Seeing people his age. He felt nauseous just thinking about it.

They finally found what was the old bus station. Which was torn down because of course they had built another one over the summer.

They finally found the new, shiny bus station and got on the bus taking them to uncle’s apartment, which was located in the newly built north area of the city. Not too far away from the gymnasium so he could just walk there tomorrow after a good night of sleep (or a night full of nightmares, that was kind of a Russian roulette by now).

**Yue**

There was not a lot of people on the bus, but she did spot one especially grumpy-looking teenager who looked like they were in the same situation as herself.

They also travelled with what looked like a family member, judging by the similar hair styles and facial features, the older grey-haired person was reading a book about… tea?. The teenager sat on the other side of the corridor, turned in the opposite direction, but next to Yue.

She found the teenager looking strangely at her, as if they recognized her. She thought about it a moment and then stared back and lifted her eyebrow as if to say ‘Why u looking, creep?’, somehow the teenager actually got her silent words and looked away suddenly, getting a little red in the face.

That was not an expected reaction. Shit.

Yoni actually had the audacity to claim a tiktok break and shoved the baby-bag in Yue’s lap only to plug in earbuds and start scrolling the endless feed of frog-themed videos and silly dances.

The other teenager who had looked at her suddenly locked their eyes on her again. This time she was a little pissed, why did they keep looking at her? she hadn’t been watching them at all.

When she now took a closer look, the teenager only had one functioning eye, the other one being covered by a nasty burn scar. If she had to guess what caused it she would go for industry child worker, even though it was twenty years ago both the new laws in the colonized areas against child and teenage labour and the union-rights act had fully settled. That idea was quickly discarded, they were way too young to work in a factory with that time line… and they didn’t look like they were from the colonized areas, the pale skin and the high hair bun indicated west coast, formally fire nation.

Well, that culture had a lot of traditional ceremonies involving fire, maybe that is where they got the burn.

The stranger continued to stare at her, but this time Yue stared at them even more angrily than last time. She could practically see the teenager panic and, actually not blush, instead they whispered just loud enough for her to hear,

“I’m not staring; you just remind me of someone I used to know”

“Yeah sure you look like you know many Watertribe chicks, an ex or something?”

Sure she was a little irritated. But she instantly regretted saying that. Her impulse control was the worst. She saw the other teenager panic and could practically see their brain spit out...

“No you are getting it wrong, I’m gay” They turned extremely pale and quickly covered their face as soon as those words was out.

It didn’t look like this conversation would go on. But Yue felt her gut drop, she had been really mean, even if she was right about feeling uncomfortable when a stranger stared intensively at her.

She patted the teenager on the shoulder and said, with a kinder tone: “What a coincidence, me too. Sorry I was rude, that was kinda shitty of me” she smiled a little as the other teenager looked at her in shock and she could physically see them relax a tiny bit.

“Well this was the weirdest way ever to come out, talking to a stranger on a bus I mean” they said and chuckled a little.

She could tell this situation was extremely awkward. But also, she didn’t care.

Growing up in a small society where you were related to a quarter of the people who lived there and your dentist was also your hairdresser and biology teacher, meeting other LGBTQIA+ people was a small chance, even though she knew some queer people back home. Their ‘Higly Advanced Intergay Communication’ proceeded with classic no impulse-control Yue talking without social filters:

“Girl we got to work on your style to make it more obvious, coming out all the time is exhausting” she said and then pointed at her earrings, traditional Northtriber earrings with a rainbow pattern fully visible, the colours melting naturally into the design.

She really just said that. Stupid impulsive brain. She watched the teenager register her bold statement, then they replied:

“Well I could need so-“ they was suddenly interrupted in their small talk as the teenager’s family member looked up from their book and announced that this was where they was getting off.

The teenager looked baffled by the interruption and scrambled to quickly carry all the luggage out the door and sent Yue a small wave before they got of the bus.

What just happened.

The rest of the ride was extremely boring. Yoni ignored her attempts to give back the baby-bag and they finally arrived on the final destination, at the gymnasium, where she was spending the next two years.

“This is a big moment. These years will determine the rest of your life. Don’t screw them up as I did, actually studying and reading epic fantasy until three in the morning” Yoni said in a ceremonial tone.

Yue turned to Yoni and made the formal hand greeting of her tribe and said in an equally formal tone: “I solemnly promise I will not waste my time here actually studying and reading epic fantasy until tree in the morning. I will only study what I think is worth learning and… also play Minecraft until four in the morning”

“ _I have taught you well_ ” Yoni said in their native language and wiped a fake tear from her face.

She returned the formal hand gesture and Yue felt warm inside, knowing at least one person in this new weird city had proper humour. She hadn’t actually met Sokka and Katara in person since they were children, when they still lived in the north. Then Kya died and they had to move… but she was glad they kept talking over skype, especially the last half year.

Sokka definitely shared her and Yoni's strange sense of humour. Katara she wasn’t sure with. Well, what could go wrong?

 _A lot_ her brain said.

_Shut up._

She ended up having to carry the baby-bag all the way to the dorms because Yoni ‘couldn’t feel her legs’.

**Zuko**

On the bus the strangest thing happened. He set eyes on a person who so painfully reminded him of his middle school crush/bully victim Sokka. This person, or girl… or queer… not entirely sure… had the typical watertribe skin tone and facial structure, with piercing blue eyes.

This person also had completely white hair, opposite from the black hair he was used to. They had noticed him staring and what followed after that was... extremely awkward and a little bit fun.

He didn’t even want to think about it, but the fact that that just happened made his mind go blank. He somehow made a LGBTQIA+ connection within a day of moving back there, with a stranger on the bus.

Who he probably would never see again.

Wait.

The person looked like his age. And had lots of heavy bags, just like himself. And the only place where everyone went to school and took with them heavy bags full of belongings… was the dorms at Takutown gymnasium.

Shit.

Small towns sucks.

That means he will probably meet this person the next week, when the schools started up.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Hopefully their dorms weren’t close, it was a risk of 1/6 that they were going to live in the same dorm.

That was not a high probability right?

He hoped he didn’t have to live with anyone he had ever met before.

Was that too much to ask?

To get a fresh start?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * Gymnasium is the Swedish high school/secondary school. Students go there for three years, usually the ages 15-19 depending on when on the year you are born. I will be using that term here because... uuuuuuuhhhhh this is my story.  
> Seriously don’t take anything stupid I write here seriously


	2. Dorm tour

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yooo got an update. Thanks for the kudos and comment, those gives me a reason to continue writing and now I got a lot of new motivation!

**Yue**

The dorms were mainly for kids from the countryside who didn’t have the option to commute by train every day. There were only about 100 people living there, which were a small amount considering Takutown’s gymnasium were one of the biggest in the United Nations, with almost 2000 students in the same campus area. The many programs offered a variety of career paths, from the construction program, whose students could get a job and a pay check one month after graduating their third year, or the technical science program, whose students had an average of five years of university and not that much money to live on (especially since university students had a tendency to buy alcohol and fix parties for most of the money).

Guess three times which program Yue was sold out on? Yeah the technical program. Students usually chose their specialisation of the program the second year, and since she was transferring from the much less specialized science program in Northern Water city, which for the record had _one_ gymnasium with about 300 students and five programs: science, society, construction, agriculture and nurse/childcare. Not that much variety compared to Takutown’s 18 programs. One thing was good with the first year she spent in North Water city’s gymnasium: she actually had read all the classes the first years had in Takutown, so she didn’t have to study extra.

A couple of months back she had arranged everything with the transfer and her new school sent her a paper about the specialisation, the technical science program had four specialisations: Design and product development (where the creative nerds go), community building and environment (where the future engineers go), technical science (if you like math and physics) and Information and media technology (where the computer nerds go). For Yue, it stood between technical science and information and media technology. She really liked computers and IT, but she also liked math, science, and physics… so technical science it was. She had also chosen programming as the individual course this year so she got some computer science on the schedule.

Anyways, the school didn’t start until Monday, and it was currently Thursday, and she and Yoni stood outside the dorm.

“Can’t believe I am finally here”

“Take your time” Yoni said and was bold enough to yawn, Yue admitted she had been frozen on the stairs for three minutes.

“I am really nervous about meeting Sokka and Katara for the first time in many years” she said quietly. Yoni immediately dropped the act when she realised how anxious she was.

“You probably already know this, but you have nothing to be nervous about. Your cousins are really nice, and I bet you will get new friends here in no time. Few people would miss the chance to get to know a cool Northtriber like you, and if they don’t want to get to know you, they are the ones missing out”

“Thanks”

“Also be prepared for being unusually exhausted these first days, all the new impressions will leave you as good as dead by the end of the day, that I can promise”

“Noted”

“Ready to move, o great stone statue of the goddess Tui?”

“Shut up or you will carry the baby-bag to the second floor”

They walked up the stairs to the big three-floor building. Apparently there was six dorms, all with different people from all over the country. Her dorm was on the second floor to the left after the exhausting stairs. The double doors were decorated with the sign: Dorm 3, and underneath was a handmade taped sign saying: “THIS WAY YUE!!!!!” with flowers and something she suspected was meant to be the Moongodess Tui painted in permanent marker, but it looked more like someone had splashed milk on Lan WanJi from The Untamed. She suspected it was Sokka who had brought this masterpiece to life.

She walked in through the door and followed the corridor to the common room where about five students currently arguing over… food? A couple of dishes was all she heard in the buzz of words. The common room was quite big; the dorm was home to 16 students after all. There was a large dining table in a room to the side, which also was connected to the kitchen, which seemed to be large and well equipped. There was also a couple of sofas in front of a TV where she could imagine the rumoured movie-nights which Sokka had told her about took place.

She collected her courage and dropped the heavy backpack on the sofa, both to make her presence known and both because it was killing her back.

“Hi”

“Tui and La! Toph you were supposed to tell us when she was arriving” a teenager with a squealy voice complained. She realised it was Sokka, who to her surprise was tall, like 175 cm at least.

“Sorry, but you literary posted me, the blind girl, on watch duty”, a smaller girl with black hair tied up in an orderly bun and headphones on her head, said from behind her phone. She actually sat on a chair facing her, as if Sokka had placed her there for lookout, and she didn’t complain about her useless task and instead pulled up her phone to scroll tiktok or something. Yue couldn’t blame her; it was just like Sokka do forget something like that. Talking about Sokka, he was suddenly sprinting through the room and pulled her into a tight hug.

“I haven’t seen you in years, I almost started thinking you were dead”

“We literally talked over skype one week ago”

“It isn’t the same as seeing you in real life”

“Right. Also if you don’t let me go soon I might as well be dead”. The hug was indeed tight and Sokka immediately let go and let her take a few breaths before another person, definitely Katara, pulled her into an even tighter hug.

“What is it with you Southtribers? Are you really so happy to see me if you are sending me to my grave right away” Yue said in one breath from the tight hug.

“Oh sorry Yue, we are just really happy to see you” Katara exclaimed as she pulled away and looked her over.

“You have grown” She said, ironically having to look down from her 165 cm to her _older,_ but also 10 cm shorter cousin.

“No I haven’t, you have grown. You both are tall like a polar bear on its hind legs, and here I am tall like a musk ox, it must be the gravitation up north that keeps stunting my growth” Yue said bitterly.

“What’s a musk ox?” a (another one!!) tall person asked. They had brown shoulder length hair, about half of it pulled up in a ponytail behind their head. They had lots of freckles in her face and blue eyes, just like Yue herself. Their skin tone didn’t bring fourth the same intense blue as the water tribe people, it was more of a blue-grey-ish colour she felt herself willing to stare into for days.

 _Tui that sounded very much cliché in her head._ But still true. They were... extremely attractive, was the right term Yue decided. They were clearly from the former south Earth kingdom judging from their melodic dialect.

“Musk oxs are the most beautiful animal in the animal kingdom, and yes I have evidence in the form of pictures of the calves” she said, feeling herself smiling like an idiot at her cousins’ friend.

“Seems about time for some introductions” Sokka said enthusiastically.

“This is our friend Suki from Kyoshi, she studies second year nature science” The hot girl had a name and a place, next thing she needed to know was if they were going to be roommates or not. She already had a list of pros and cons for that _._

_Extract from said list: pro: I get to look at her, like, all the time. Con: she will notice that._

“This is Toph, who was supposed to at least hear you coming inside, anyways she is a first year in technical science, just like you”

“Sup Sokka and Katara’s cousin”

“Sup Toph” she answered. It felt like their vibes was similar on some plain.

“This is our other friend Aang, he is also a first year in the humanistic program”

“Hi! it is so nice to meet you” A.. medium sized? (at least not as tall as Katara) kid bounced up and greeted her with an Airnation hand sign. She returned the gesture with her own Northtriber hand sign. It seemed like her cousins had picked up friends from all over the country.

“Right, this is my auntie Yoni who also lives here in Takutown, she helped me carry my stuff from the train. You remember her right?” Sokka squeezed his face and then lit up as if he remembered her from their childhood.

“You always gave us candy and let us play on your Nintendo when we were visiting Grangran’s siblings”

“You got it right, I am the coolest auntie there is” Yoni said with a proud grin. The extended family in the Water tribes rarely stuck to common terms of family relationships. Yue, Sokka and Katara was second cousins in the family tree, their grandmothers being siblings. But anyone of your parents’ generation who were remotely blood-related to you was your auntie, uncle or auncle. In the same way was Katara and Sokka her cousins, belonging to the same generation as her.

“We was actually making you dinner, as a welcome-to-Takutown event, but Katara didn’t start in time with the rice and it is at least half an hour left and you are surly starving…” Sokka said sadly. That explained all the arguing earlier about food.

“It’s okay, I need a dorm tour either way, why not go now?” Sokka immediately lit up. “Okay! I declare myself as the best person to lead the tour, any objections?”

“Nooooo” the majority of the croup said with a groan. Sokka pretended to not hear it and started walking in the directions of the rooms with Yue in tow. Yoni damped sown in the sofa, massaging her shoulders as she looked like she didn’t feel like seeing teenagers decorate their dorm rooms. The rest of the gang followed them at a distance

_Wonder why so many collectively agreed that Sokka shouldn’t lead the tour…._

**Zuko**

Uncle’s apartment was just two rooms and a kitchen, the first room being uncle’s bedroom and the second being a common room with a sofa bed as a temporary solution for Zuko to sleep in. Uncle had talked about moving the whole summer, he could use a place closer to centrum where his tea shop, the Jasmine Dragon, was located. It had been a dream for uncle his whole life to start a tea shop. First when father officially inherited the company five years ago and politely kicked uncle out of the business, he got to it to start up his own place. Their family was an old Fire nation family, rich from all the colonies they managed back before the war. They were still rich, owning one of the biggest oil platforms out in the ocean west of the Southern water tribe area.

It was quite a contrast to move from the luxurious apartment in Caldera, and before that the villa here in Takutown where they used to live. That place was called the Eagle Nest, it was a very secure villa in the richest part of town. It only had a heavily secured front door and an enormous carport as only openings to the house, the rest was behind a fancy decorated brick wall. The place was once happy when he was a kid. Him and Azula used to play in the garden with their friends a lot.

The big brick walls soon turned to a prison when they got older, with a distant mother and a father who literary pitted them against each other in order to see who was the most prominent heir.

Yeah, for real, that was tradition in their cursed family. He didn’t have any official cousins. The main family was the only one whose children could inherit the family name, Huodashi. It was tradition for them to pit their children against each other in bloody Shaolinquan fights. Shaolinquan was an old traditional martial arts style in the northern former Fire nation. The leader of the family would simply pick the kid who survived the longest, disowning the other one and giving them the surname Zhaohuo, which could ironically translate to ‘head on fire’ in old Fire nation language.

At first his uncle won the fights and got the honour to transfer the main name to the next generation. He was compassionate and treated Zuko’s father as an equal, deciding they should share the name between their two branches. Then Lu Ten, Iroh’s son, died tragically in a car accident and Iroh stepped down as the head of the family. His father had some honour left in his body as he allowed Iroh to keep the family name, since he clearly wasn’t having another kid. Zuko, on the other hand, fought Azula time and time again, and he always lost. When he left this spring his father took the opportunity to declare Azula the heir and he officially was named Zuko Zhaohuo. Many disowned children in their family had historically gotten burnt on different visible body parts by the family leader in order to mark their defeat. This tradition was actually abolished two hundred years ago, but guess who thought it was a fun thing to bring back? The worst father in the whole world. It was absolutely illegal, but Zuko hadn’t bothered to press charges. With his father as a major politician and business man in Caldera and most of the north of the former Fire nation, he had all the money in the world to hire advocates making up clever lies about how Zuko tripped, and fell in the fire as a clumsy teenager. Okay, maybe that wouldn’t work in real life, but Zuko had actually liked the quiet summer where no one recognized him as Ozai’s son in the public. He officially had nothing to do with his father. And he kind of liked it this way. He didn’t like the ugly scar though. He could sometimes wear an eyepatch, looking like Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul, since he only had a blurry sight in his bad eye. He missed the 3D sight though, and had actually booked an appointment whit the optician in Takutown in order to find some kind of eye lens for his bad eye. His life was moving forward, but the ghosts of his past had a tendency to not leave him alone.

He had dumped all his bags in uncle’s common room. He felt like it was no use to unpack them all since he was moving to the dorms officially on Friday, and today was Thursday. Tomorrow he would go to the school in order to get his keys and start his new life as an economy student. He didn’t really know why he chose economy, maybe because he sucked at science, math and practical stuff. Plus, a profession in the area of economics was well-respected and the career choices was many. He had no idea what to do with his life though. He figured he would focus on studying for the next three years and hope he had figured it out by the time he graduated.

Uncle took a tour inspecting his (alive???!!!) houseplants after a summer of absence since Iroh had stayed with him and mom in Black Cliffs for two months. Apparently you could slow feed your plants water using some insane nature law consisting of moisture traveling upwards if connected to a string of fabric. Insane. Yeah he was going to study economics, not science, for a reason. They then made some instant ramen for dinner and continued to play a part Pai Sho before going to sleep.

He had learned some strategies over the summer, but he was still outmatched by uncle in the end.

“I can tell you are nervous about starting school again, your gameplan is slipping” uncle said and moved one of his pieces to a strategical stronghold.

“Maybe. Or it could be the fact that I haven’t been playing this game actively for 30 years like you”

“You make me sound like a dinosaur”

“How old are you really?”

“That is a question best unanswered, but I could tell you I am lowering the average age of the Pai Sho club with at least five years the times I join the meetings”

“That is a little creepy, that tea loving Pai Sho cult you joined last year”

“The White Lotus is a highly respectable society with a high intellect, it is much beloved by its members who often stay there until old age. Oh, my red orchid takes your sakura blossom, you need to strategize more outside the box nephew”

Zuko ignored the vague advice. “Okay then, let’s go over the two main criteria of a cult. It is hard to join and hard to leave”

“Now you are just teasing me. The White Lotus is easy to join, it is a fully non-profit association, it is just to show up when you like”

“Well then it is a half-cult, don’t most of your members die as such? Never leaving the organisation since they joined? That may not be a bad thing, but still a little cult-ish”

“….” Uncle just stared dryly at him, clearly not that amused by Zuko calling his old-people club an cult. Zuko let it go and tried to concentrate on his new strategy.

“Oh look, I could actually take your red orchid with my titan arum”

“Good, you are improving, that was a quite clever move”

They continued playing for a quarter, then the victory was uncle’s, not surprising at all. Iroh stuffed away the portable game board and all the little beautifully carved wood pieces as Zuko pulled out the bed sofa and began preparing for the night.

“I know you are nervous about starting school again, but you have grown so much this summer, I doubt anything can go wrong. And if it does, I will always be here to have your back”

Zuko couldn’t look uncle in the eye, even if he appreciated his words. He had this feeling in his gut, that he could majorly fuck everything up and send his life in a downward spiral again. Done it once and your brain have the instructions.

“Thanks” he just said, without looking at him. He could hear uncle sigh, as if he knew what was going on in his head at just that moment.

“I am proud of you. Goodnight Zuko” Zuko forced himself to look up and said,

“Goodnight uncle” to his back as he went to his bedroom.

**Yue**

Sokka knocked and opened the door to the first room. All the rooms were the same size, they were all equipped with two beds at opposite sides of the room, and one extendable thinner wall in the middle. In that way it could separate the room into two or keep it as one big room, depending on how well the people living there got along. Seemed like a smart function in her opinion.

This particular room was the definition of “movie nerd”, all over the walls on both sides were posters of animated movies, star wars, lord of the ring, marvel and a bunch of movie posters she didn’t recognize. She was also pretty sure that was a lightsabre in the umbrella stand.

“This is room #1, here lives Oma, she got real dry humour” Sokka said with a straight face as he greeted the girl sitting at her desk drawing something and looking unimpressed at Sokka’s joke. Oma was quite large-sized and had long black hair tied up in a knot on her head. She had a pretty colourful clothing style with lime-green yoga pants and a blue-orange sweatshirt.

“Just say I am from the Si Wong Desert” Oma said and rolled her eyes. Yue had to supress a chuckle and failed miserably.

“Not another Sokka” Oma said horrified as she slammed her head in the desk.

“Sorry” Yue said as soon as she got her face back to normal. “You like Star Wars?”

“Sure do, both me and Chey, who also lives here, are huge film nerds, we are the hosts of ‘movie night’ if you have heard of that. On Monday we start binging The Mandalorian”

“Don’t mind if I join, I always liked the OT better and I really want to know what happened after”

“Aside from _him”_ (she glared at Sokka) “This one got taste. This might not be as bad as I suspected” Oma said with a smirk and walked to the door and closed it. Well maybe they were invading their personal space a bit much, knocking and waiting was a good solution she decided.

“Anyways, Chey will arrive at Saturday since they are staying with their family in Black Cliffs the whole summer” Sokka said as he moved on to the next door, apparently had the same thought as Yue and waited for the person inside to answer before opening the door.

“Room #2, got our own city girl who somehow ended up here and no one knows why, it’s a mystery” Sokka said whit a spooky voice.

“Damn right it is, and no one is ever finding out why I am here instead of Ba Sing Se, I’m Jin by the way” The room was more cramped than room #1, because Jin’s side of the room was occupied with a large desk with a computer and an ergonomic gaming chair. It was nice to see someone share Yue’s interest in computer games. The other side of the room was barley decorated at all, there was just two bags and a backpack on the bed. The both inhabitants of room #2 were cramped up in Jin’s bed, watching (Netflix, probably) on a laptop. Jin had to take the prize for messiest hair in the whole dorm because her brown hair looked like a squirrel could move in and build a nest anytime. Beside Jin laid a smaller person with hair in braids. Sokka pinched his eyebrows.

“Aaand I forgot the other person’s name” Sokka said, smiling at the other person in the room.

“Pema, from East Air city, I am non-binary and go by they/them, just good to know” they added quietly.

“And I go by she/her” Jin added supportively.

“Right, super cool Pema! If you know Chey in room #1, they are non-binary as well. I don’t know how, but somehow all the queer people ended up in our dorm”

“I believe we have a natural magnetic force to each other, and it mixed with the dorm system and somehow like 45% of the LGBTQIA+ people ended up in our dorm” Jin said.

_That is a conspiratory theory I can get behind._

They left Jin and Pema to their Netflix marathon and moved on to knock on door #3.

“Gotta remember to ask pronouns for the rest of the tour” Sokka said, a little embarrassed. It was a big deal for Water tribe people to know the gender and pronoun as well as the names of everyone they met, it was a sign of respect and good manners. From where Yue was, the native language used the same pronoun for everyone, it only existing one pronoun that was commonly used. With the common language as her second language she had simply learned to call everybody by they/them in the beginning and it took several years before she realised many preferred the gender-typical pronouns, herself included. And so the thing with Watertribers being considered well-mannered if they asked of pronouns as well as names while speaking to strangers was born. She knew the colonialization in the south was rooted deeper than in the north, and neither Katara or Sokka could speak the native Water tribe language fluently, but the tradition still ran deep. One of the few cultural aspects that wasn’t lost.

They heard a ‘come in’ form inside the next room on their tour.

“Right, room #3, here lives our cute first and third-year humanism students Aang, who you already met and Tashi, if I remember correctly you are both from South air city?, also which pronoun do you use now again?”

“He/him usually, and yes we are both from South Air city” Tashi said, he was lying comfortably on the bed and looked up from his phone when they peeked through the door. He had glasses, short stubby hair and also a small beard about to form on his chin. He had a slightly different dialect than Suki, but you could still pinpoint is as the Southern Coast. The room was… minimalistic. There were not many things on the walls, but there was a gorgeous traditional Airnation mat on the floor.

“I see it is the new one from the north, Oma suspects you got as bad taste in humour as Sokka judging from what is going on in the group chat right now” Tashi said suspiciously.

“I can’t deny or confirm anything” Yue said with a straight face. “Also how do I get invited to this rumoured group chat?”

“You will have to pass our rites with all the first years this Sunday before you get invited to our glorious group chat” Sokka said with a grin. They moved on. She didn’t know why, but Tashi gave her the vibe of someone… strict and orderly, the opposite to her chaotic personality. It was maybe wrong to pick out your polar opposites which you suspected you weren’t going to get along with, but the vibe said so. It could just be good to not expect future best friends of everyone living in this dorm.

The inhabitants of room #4 were not home and Sokka informed her two fire nation girls (he wasn’t 100% sure if Mai was a girl or went by she/her, as they just had moved in as a second year, but Ying was a third year in the agriculture program and went with pronouns she/her. So to be sure)… Ying and the other fire nation person lived there. Hopefully they would both show up for the ‘group chat rites’ held on Saturday.

“Room #5 is inhabited by our own master warrior queen with mussels and class and perfect hair (Suki), and besides her, Katara also lives in this room”

“Hey!!!!” Katara yelled angrily from the back of the queue. Sokka turned around to grin mockingly at his sister and a green sock hit him in the face with impressing speed.

“At least I got the best aim in this dorm” Katara said as she took of her other sock and launched it like a slingshot at Sokka. Another hit.

_Alright that was kinda cool._

Their room was decorated with lots of books and, you know those old-timey photos girls likes to take with their friends and put on the walls in a clutter? Katara had a space over her bed for those. Suki’s bed decoration was the best though: a pair of Kyoshi warrior fans. Real, golden shiny ones made of metal which the Kyoshi warriors used in the wars they participated in since 800 years ago. That totally took the prize.

“If I want someone’s throat slashed open I guess this is the place to go to” Yue said in awe, staring at Suki’s golden fans.

“You got it sis, if someone bothers you at school I’ll get my fans. On second thought I heard from Sokka that you are quite the Taijiquan fighter” Suki was suddenly beside her in the doorframe and she was thankful for the compliment as an excuse for her blushing. She still couldn’t get over how pretty Suki was.

“It’s more of a tradition where I come from, but yeah I guess it wouldn’t be a problem of people started picking on me”

 _But it is not the same thing as slicing someone’s throat with a fan_ **,** she left that one out because no one, not a single soul, asked to hear what her brain obsessed with gore had to say.

“Well well, our next room hold the most useful person, my saviour and the best person in the entire dorm. The future cook of some fancy restaurant, probably.” They knocked and was let in.

“Hi guys, this is Yue, the new one” Sokka said as he opened the door to room #6, which was completely green, with shades of brown, but still completely green. These people were probably from the Earth kingdom.

“Hello Yue, I’m Haru, he/him, and I heard Sokka call me his saviour, and I just want to clarify that I will not cook dinner for everyone every day, just because I am a third year at the restaurant and food program. We actually have our dinner-schedule for the schooldays which everyone follows” he said and shot a critical look at Sokka.

“Yeah but when you do cook it always turns out delicious because you, you know, actually know how to cook other things than pasta and pancakes” the other person said from behind a comic, sitting on his bed. “Hi Yue, I’m Hui, he/him, I hope you do like pasta, because that is what 80% of the food here is going to be” Hui seemed nice… _but actually,_ the poor guy had a whole volcano landscape of acne, (way worse than the most of the people in this dorm) spreading out in his forehead.

“Can’t wait” Yue said sarcastically.

“Next room!!!” Sokka said and slammed the door before Haru had the time to reminder him about the dinner-schedule.

“Now we are finally here, room #7, your home for two years to come, and hopefully all the new names haven’t made a mess of your brain and you can figure out who you are living with!?”

“Well, I guess the school has some sort of policy for”, She made quotation marks in the air, “‘No boys and girls in the same room because PANIC THEY ARE OF DIFFERENT GENDERS’, if I get to say it myself, that is kinda homophobic and transphobic, but I am not complaining if Toph and I are going to be roomates” She said and spun around to smile at Toph.

“Well, I barley know you, but judging by how much Sokka has been talking about his cousin the Northtriber, you seem to be a nice person. Also we are three people living in here now, he isn’t here now but I actually have a service dog. Right now he is home with my parents getting a bath before moving in with these clean people. This dorm is kind of specialized so no one allergic lives here”

“That is so cool! I grew up with dogs so it is no problem. I was actually afraid I was going to miss the dogs, and I will, but I think this will be one less thing to worry about soon.” She said with relief _._

_A dog. Niiiiice!!!_

Her room was barley decorated, as Toph had recently moved in as well. Yoni had left the bags on the bed, _thanks Yoni._

“Seems to be only one room left, so who is your roommate Sokka?” she asked curiously.

“No idea, they arrive at Saturday morning I think… I hope they doesn’t snore though”

“You are one to talk! I literally has reinforced hearing, ya know, one of the good things about being blind, and I heard you snort last night” Toph said and turned her head towards Sokka to stare with her blurry grey eyes in the general direction of Sokka in order to make him feel targeted.

“Uhm, it is not only Toph’s reinforced hearing, the walls are actually pretty thin. And we are all teenagers… over fifteen… whit lots of hormones” Katara said suggestively.

“What she says is don’t make out too loud, and put a sock on the handle if you decide to fu”

“Woooooo slow down we get it” Katara interrupted Toph’s clarification and her face turned red like a tomato.

_Suspicious_

“Yo it smells like something is getting burnt in here” Yoni shouted from the common area and Katara squeaked before rushing past them into the kitchen to check on her rice. Yue knew Yoni’s trick though, she always said that at home so people would walk into the kitchen and be social with her. She got her ways to get attention.

The rest of the evening was spent together with all the people she had met, everybody eating Katara’s delicious South tribe food, with vegan options for the Air nation people of course. It was a lively gang, talking about everything between sky and earth during the dinner. The older people had a lot of catching up to so since the summer and the new people like Yue herself was mostly listening and trying hard to learn all the names and pronouns correctly right of the bat.

Yoni went home after the dinner and reminded her of calling the next week so they could talk about all the funny cultural differences.

She was really tired when she went to bed early. Toph stayed up later, participating in a spontaneous arm-wrestling contest with Jin. Toph won despite being about half Jin’s size.

This felt like a good start. Despite Toph's loud giggls, she slept like a stone that night.

**Zuko**

Zuko went to bed and prayed to the god of the night no not give him nightmares. The god of the night amusingly loaded their 50/50 nightmare crossbow and shot him in the head. They liked to see him suffer, especially during the night. The arrow was loaded this time.

_He could see the walls of the Eagle Nest tower before him. He had gotten in a fight with Azula over some silly thing, but father was angry at him for making so much noise. He tried to run away and hide, but the well-trimmed garden didn’t have that many hiding spots as he grew bigger by the years. The hair in his neck rose as he heard father’s voice close, way to close, murmur next to his ear:_

_“There you are. Time for you to pay for your behaviour”_

_He turned around terrified to see his father’s hard and unforgiving eyes lock on him. He then grabbed Zuko’s arm, grip way too hard, and dragged him inside the house, which was filled with flames. He screamed as the flames burned him, making his skin itch and hurt, while his father just walked through the flames untouched. As he felt his skin swell and fry of his flesh,_ he woke up.

He was in uncle’s apartment, still sweaty from the intense nightmare. He didn’t think he had screamed, then uncle would have woken up. He kept sitting there catching his breath, remembering vague fragments of the dream containing fire and father’s eyes. It’s just a dream, stupid shit his brain makes up in order to process what really happened, except the fact that his brain makes the dreams 10 times more terrifying than the actual memory. This one was reoccurring though. He had five or so reoccurring dreams, most of them involving fire and his father in different combinations. They always ended with him waking up after thinking he was being burned alive.

He checked the time, 04.26. He could get some more hours of sleep he decided, and took the chance of not getting more nightmares. It actually worked, he fell into a blessed, dreamless sleep for a few hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a slight warning. This fic is ranked m for all the serious themes of cultural oblideration, genocide and trauma i am going to put the characters through.  
> *me in a wispering voice as i give them heavy trauma and nightmares: i do this because i love you*  
> There is going to be a lot fluff to make up for all the angst though, just you wait.


	3. Ever played turn ten? That shit is intense

**Zuko**

Zuko walked up to the dorm at school the next day at midday. Uncle was working in his tea shop down town and he got half of his things in two bags as he walked the short distance, about one kilometre to the dorm. He was going to get the rest of his stuff in a couple of hours. He had a lot of things to do before. First he went to the school’s reception to get his keys to the room. From what he understood there was two people living in each room, but they somehow had a retractable wall to separate the room if they wanted to be alone. He had absolutely no idea who was his roommate, all he knew was that the school went by this boy-boy and girl-girl room system. Which was inconvenient for him. It was a weird thing to think about seeing that he didn’t fall in love that easily. He had honestly only been in love with fictional characters this far. But they all were beefy men so he hoped whoever he was going to live with wasn’t attractive. But… it would be nice to have someone pretty to look at.

He went up the stairs in the dorm building. There was a lot of people in the corridors, many of them first-years like himself who was moving into the dorms for the first time. Others was second and third years who had started weird rites of passing and activities in order to make the new ones feel welcome. He found his dorm, dorm 3, and there was a handmade instruction sign there, gesturing for someone named Yue to the right dorm. The art on the sign was… abstract at best but he guessed it wasn’t an estetic art student who made it. He opened the door and could hear low voices down the corridor. As he turned around the corner and took a look at the people in the common room to register their faces the feeling in his gut got a lot worse. Remember how he wanted a fresh start? Well the damned gods of this world just loooved to make life hard for him. At the dinner table sat five people, playing some kind of card game. Of the five people there, he recognized three. The world seemed to go in slow motion as their faces turned around to look at him.

The first face he recognized was, and curse the damn gods, the white haired queer from the bus ride yesterday. They had half of their hair pulled up in a northtriber-styled ponytail and he could practically see the recognition settle in their brain. He quickly turned his eyes around to see the next person. Bad choice. He would return to Caldera, move in with father and never come back to Takutown if he could in that moment. It took some time for him to recognize the person. But it was undoubtingly Sokka. The boy he had gone the first six years of primary school with. His bully victim and first crush (though it took about a year after they’d left Takutown for him to realise that). He immediately realised why the white haired queer reminded him of Sokka, they were definitely related. They had the same skin tone, facial features and piercing blue eyes. No really what fucking gene did the Watertribers carry that made their eyes so blue?

Sokka was staring at him, like he also just recognized him. He had grown a lot taller and more muscular since elementary school. He remembered Sokka used to practice biathlon back in the day, and apparently he had been hitting the gym the last five years.

Realization struck Zuko as his brain provided an uncensored and limited edition version of all the awful stuff he had said five years ago.

“ _Don’t you have a mother who can teach you how to behave?”_

_“Your hair is stupid; you look like a girl”_

_“Why don’t you go back to that savage Watertribe village you come from?”_

The words and actions got worse by the years.

_“You couldn’t even defend your people if you wanted to”_

_“Watertribe is meant to lose all wars, you pathetic savages”_

_“I heard people are so inbred where you come from they can’t function properly. Maybe that is why you are so stupid”_

_“Why you crying? Bet your parents are unemployed and constantly drunk, just a burden to society”_

He was very, very certain those words were not only playing in his head as he saw Sokka snap his head away. Disbelief and anger showing. Zuko glanced quickly around the table at the other people. Aside from Sokka and his relative there was Aang, another bully victim of his from elementary school, and his brain for real didn’t play another set of exclusive terrible life choices, it was like ‘best to spare those memories for tonight because it is starting to smell like burnt brain cell in here from all the anxiety’.

The other two people at the table looked like earth kingdom citizens, one much larger and colourful person with darker skin and another shorter one who was the only one who didn’t look at him. The shorter one said:

“Why are you all so quiet, isn’t it your turn Oma? Wait… someone walked in here, I can tell.” Now the fifth head was turned his way and he was met with grey eyes focused in his general direction. He for real thought he was going to be the only one remotely blind in this dorm but apparently he was outmatched.

The anxiety and pressure from his surrounding was too embarrassing, the silence digging holes in his skin, so he clenched his throat and managed to say:

“Hello, Zuko here”

Then his conscience officially logged out because one teenage brain could only take that much awkwardness.

“Yo you the grumpy teenager from the bus ride, weird seeing you here” The white haired queer actually said something, and Sokka snapped his head at them in confusion. His brain was running on emergency power by now.

“I could say the same about you”

“Wait you guys have met??” Sokka’s voice was a lot deeper than five years ago, but he could still make out a remanence of the teenage voice crack he used to have. But overall, that was a very nice voice.

“Met is an exaggeration. And you are one to talk, you look like you have seen a ghost”

**Sokka**

Zuko. Whaa. Zuko. Fuck. Zuko.

Sokka’s brain didn’t function right now. He had for real showed up in his life again. After five years of his life being liveable he showed up again. The. Worst. Person. On. Earth. Okay his sister was a little worse but that didn’t make this situation okay. His brain provided him with a list of things he knew:

  1. He had a scar now. That was new. He didn’t have that five years ago. Maybe it serves him right for everything he did to them.  
2\. Yue seemed to have met Zuko earlier on the bus or something? Yeah that was really weird.  
3\. The fact that Zuko is here must mean the rest of his family has moved back to Takutown. Shit.  
4\. Had he changed? or was he for real going to live in the same dorm as the shitty person who used to be his elementary school bully. Wait.  
……. 5. He knew every other new member of the dorm. And the last one just showed up. The one who was going to live with him in room 8. Living with him in room 8.



Nope.

His brain couldn’t think about this. He shoved down the list as Yue cheerfully invited the extremely uncomfortable Zuko to their table to join them in the card game. Yue was a)naïve b)to nice for her own good and c) had a lack of any social filter there ever was. She for could not stop the impulses in her brain saying ‘no that is not a good idea because the mood in the room says no’. He loved his cousin but she had no chill. Ever.

Zuko joined their table.

“Now we go with a name tour, or maybe first, you guys know each other from before right?” Yue looked at them expectantly. Aang was actually the one speaking up.

“Yeah we went to elementary school for six years together, so Zuko knows me and Sokka. Nice to see you again Zuko” even Sokka could hear how tense Aang was, but somehow he was more okay with the situation than Sokka, who couldn’t speak a word if his live was on the line.

“Okay so the new dorm member is named Zuko. Someone describe him for me. Also I’m Toph, I go by she/her and I can’t see” Toph gladly informed. She definitely felt the tense mood in the room and was probably the person most opposite from Yue’s obliviousness. Toph always had a creepy way of reading the mood in a room and she could tell when someone was uncomfortable or lying. She told everyone she could feel the shiver from the lying person’s body through the floor, but Sokka didn’t really believe that. The other thing about Toph was that even though she definitely could read the room, without the ability to see, she often did nothing to make the situation better. She actually enjoyed the tense feelings and now she had an amused grin on her face. What a dick.

“Kay he got black hair, he is pretty tall, good bone structure, kinda bleak skin tone for the moment, and a nasty burn scar over the left eye. In total a 7/10 I would say. Not that I date men, just saying. Btw I’m Oma, I go by she/her”

“Well your opinion is kind of biased… or not. But I will trust your judgment” Toph nodded approvingly.

“Aight, you have met me but I’m Yue, I go by she/her or they/them, both work fine”

“Uh… right I am Zuko… but you already know that. I go by he/him I guess”

“So Zuko, have you ever played turn ten before?”

“Eeh no, but-“

Sokka observed Zuko awkwardly failing at removing himself from the situation. Yue was determined to drag the guy into their game and teach him all the rules of turn ten, and also all the cheat-rules. She still was oblivious to his and Aang’s discomfort.

Sokka was surprised. Really. This guy was very different from back five years ago. He was taller, maybe as tall as Sokka. He also was less skinny and he had grown into what grangran would call a ‘proper young man’ if she didn’t know his history.

As Yue started collecting the cards, mixing them and handing them out in the typical turn ten fashion she continued to talk to Zuko as if he was really interesting, and not the person who made his childhood a living hell.

“So where you from?”

“Uh… Well. I have been moving around these years. I’m born here in Takutown, then we moved to Caldera and this summer I spent in Black Chliffs with my mom”

“Chey also stayed at Black Chliffs this summer with their family, ever heard of the Wen family?” Oma asked.

“Uuuh not sure, Black Chliffs is kinda big” Zuko answered, looking surprised at people being interested in his live. Well he was right. His life is not worth anything.

“What you studying? Wait I wanna guess from five quick questions!” Toph exclaimed.

“Uh”

“Does he have any kind of visible estetic style?”

“Well he used to be a little goth in elementary school” Sokka said, very surprised at his own statement. Zuko stared at him, one and a half golden eyes surprised that he actually spoke to him.

“That counts as qualifying for the estetic programs. How about his style now?”

“Well he is a little prepish with that sweater, but I’d say he has a very unremarkable fashion style, no clues to get on that front” Oma said.

“Hmmm let’s move on then. Do you want to get anywhere in your life?”

“Uh… yes?”

“That was an uncertain answer, the society program isn’t excluded yet. Three questions left? This gonna be hard. Do you have any practical skills or talents that could bring you a job in the future?”

“That is cheating. You are just asking him straight up if he is starting any practical program” Yue said.

“Gimme some slack ice queen”

“Hey why do you call me that?”

“I have heard a dozen references to some Watertribe deity and you have white hair, I have several sources, so you are not just messing with me. I bet you are building an ice castle this winter in order to play Minecraft in peace because APPARENTLY my audiobooks are too loud. You have yet to prove you are not Elsa from frozen.”

“Your audiobooks aren’t loud; you are with all the giggling. I have lived one night in this dorm and I am determined that wall in between our rooms are going to be up every night if I am going to get some sleep. Yes, my hair is white, no I am not a reincarnation of a Watertribe deity, even though some Watertribe historical and religious texts refers to white haired individuals as reincarnations of gods. This is simply a rare genetic variation which requires several genes coming together to create white hair. A study showed this several years ago but the tradition of calling me the ‘avatar of the goddess Tui’ still lives strong in the Watertribes”

“That actually explains a lot.” Toph said baffled.

“That is a really interesting mythological explanation to a rare genetic variation, the Watertribes is so much more interesting than I first thought” Aang said, captured by Yue’s colourful explanation.

“Guess you are some kind of science nerd” Zuko said surprised. “Nature science program right?”

“Technical actually”

“Close enough”

“I think we get to go back to our Zuko-program quiz. You got any talents Zuko?” Toph asked.

“…No”

“Whaaaat? You must have some, what do you do for fun?”

“Nothing”

“You can’t be serious”

Sokka could hear Zuko whisper “ _you wanna get ahead?”_ directly after Toph’s statement, he couldn’t figure out what it meant though.

“I think you are out of questions Toph” Yue said.

“Wait one more!” she held her fingers to her temples and tried to concentrate. “How good are you at math?”

“Really bad”

“At least that rules out the nature science program. You are a tough one, but I have some clues. So you are not especially good at anything practical... it could be society or trade… you don’t seem to be a cultural guy since you don’t do anything for fun, but you are probably hiding some big obsession, I can tell, so both estetic and humanism is in the game. You are ‘really bad’ at math so probably not nature science or technical. Things are contradicting themselves when you say you want to get somewhere in life, there society and trade is the wrong. You obviously don’t have the look or the gut to survive the economic program-“

Zuko took a hasty breath at that.

“Wait. I could hear that. You don’t mean you are going to the economic program. Girl you gon be fried alive” Toph actually laughed.

Zuko got red all over his face. “What do you mean at that, economics is a respectable area to work in, there are many career choices” he then added quietly “and besides I am already fried as it is.”

Sokka suddenly found himself very curious at where he got that scar from. All these feelings of hatred, disgust, confusion and curiosity was very difficult to manage. He continued in some kind of stiff auto-pilot mood.

“You may think economics are easy, well the program is kinda easy, the math you read is ridiculous, but the climate, you are never surviving there without developing fangs and sharp spikes growing out of your spine” Sokka said, actually laughing. Zuko got even redder in the face. This must be extremely embarrassing.

“I think you can make it Zuko, besides, if you don’t like it you can just change after the first month” Yue said.

“Wait is that really possible?”

“Yeah, these things aren’t written in stone you know. What was your second choice of program?”

“Humanism” Zuko said quietly.

“Oooo he definitely got some hidden obsession, I wasn’t so far off” Toph said proudly.

“Besides, if you change to humanism you’ll study together with me!”Aang said happily.

This was insane. Zuko had bullied him and Katara just as much as Aang, but somehow he had the power to see the good in everyone, even though he doubted there was anything good in Zuko. Maybe he had changed, but no one could go from ‘the third worst person he knew’ (third place only because he had a father and sister to grab the first and second places, so that said something about the Huodashi family) to ‘totally decent person’.

Aang kept the pleasant talk up as they finished their round of turn ten. It was very hard to keep a close eye at Zuko and simultaneously play one of the quickest games there was. Oma won with a landslide, followed by Yue and Toph. Aang, who never even used the cheat rules got before him.

Now there was just him and Zuko. Both having two cards on their hands and two secret cards left. He could now place all his attention at glaring at Zuko in order to make him feel uncomfortable. O boy did he look uncomfortable. His gaze kept flicking and all his moves was uncertain. Still he looked much more comfortable than 15 minutes ago.

Zuko put down a 5.

Sokka put down a 7.

Zuko put down a knight.

Sokka put down a ten and turned away the pile. He then took up the first card from the secret stash, a queen. _Things looking good._

Zuko hesitantly took a secret card and put down… a queen as well. _Crap._

The last card for Sokka now… a 2.

The tension broke as the whole audience went wild. He face-palmed himself like so many times before. The joke of ‘it’s either luck in game or luck in love’ wasn’t funny anymore. He always had this bad luck and he was never finding any love in this world. The gods had written ‘dying alone’ in Sokkas future.

This was incredible. The rules was 'no 10s or 2s in the last draw' if you were to pass. Sokka felt so disappointed and frustrated losing against Zuko.

Wait. Zuko hadn’t put out his last card yet. If he would go down this way, he could take Zuko with him. _Please be a 10 or 2._

Everyone was watching with much anticipation as Zuko looked totally lost and then picked up the hint to put his last card. The secret card showed….

A 3.

.

.

The lowest fucking card existing in this game.

The room went wild.

Sokka put his hands to his face and rose up. Just a stupid card game very dependent on luck, but it was a little bit fun playing along just to see Zuko’s horrified face at how dramatically their games went. The real fight was between the loser and the second loser, that was a fact and not a weird rule at all.

They went a couple of more rounds before Zuko managed to get away to pack up his things. Sokka quietly followed. Like it or not, this was his new roommate.

**Zuko**

He managed to get away from the crazy card game cult. It was weird. So weird. And not as bad as expected to play silly games with the other dorm members. Even though he had history with two of them. Aang was like an open book. That kid had forgiven him the moment he stepped in through the dorm as a slightly better person than he was in elementary school. He was really nice, he treated Zuko like he was worth something after everything he had done. It was all very much to take in, but there was no way he would ever earn any of their friendship. Even if it felt like they were interested in him, they would eventually see how rotten he was on the inside.

He was just a sack of skin filled with worms and maggots, kinda like the Boogeyman from Nightmare Before Christmas. It seemed only one person in the room shared his view of himself. That was… nice somehow.

“Seems we’ll be roomates” Sokka said from behind him.

He felt himself flinch as he heard that tone from behind him. That cold, neutral tone dripping with hate. At least he and his roommate had one thing in common. The hate for himself.

Zuko looked up and met his stare. _Nope. Not meeting those eyes now._

_Burning stares were all the same. Even though his eyes were not golden, it was the same stare._

He just nodded and pretended to look around the room. Sokka had already moved in. On second thought was this his second year so this room was already his home. Sokka’s part of the room was full of personality. He had a stationary computer on the desk and the walls were full of posters. Some were signed posters of biathlon celebrities from the Water tribes, others were from different anime series he vaguely recognized. And there was also a big poster of… the periodic table?

Sokka clenched his throat and spoke:

“I know everyone seems to think you are an actual decent person, but I don’t trust you and you know why” That Stare continued.

He couldn't help it.

“Seems about right”

He collected the courage to meet Sokka’s stare and for a second there was no apparent hate, just surprise and a little bit of confusion. Then the unreadable cold returned, but it wasn’t as bad as before.

“Ahem… god that we are on the same point. I think we should put up the middle wall since we clearly don’t get along”

“You’re right.”

Once again, Sokka looked confused, but more than last time. Enough to ask:

“You always used to shout and contradict everything people said to you. Have you gotten over the rebellious teenage years or something?” Sokka looked as shocked at that statement as Zuko. Like he didn’t mean to say that out loud.

“Yeah something like that” He managed to mutter in response. This was weird. 

_RETREAT_

“I have to go get the rest of my stuff from uncle’s place”

“Right. I’ll manage the wall then”

As he walked through the door, Sokka asked him another question, but this time all the hate was out of his voice. There was just indifference and maybe something else.

“You don’t live with your dad anymore?”

He managed to answer:

"No he is still in Caldera" and then walked out into the corridor without looking back. But he felt Sokka's eyes in his neck. He had no idea what kind of eyes looked at him in that moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise i have a plan for where this is going. It's just writing everything in between that is exhausting.  
> Comment if you like, i appreciate it very much! Like almost every author writes that but i am absolutley freaking out knowing at least three people actually read this.  
> Btw my friend is writng a fic as well, we started of together so some of the names and stuff are the same, check it out!  
> (I have no idea how to link things professionally)  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/29612037/chapters/72792315

**Author's Note:**

> * Gymnasium is the Swedish high school/secondary school. Students go there for three years, usually the ages 15-19 depending on when on the year you are born. I will be using that term here because... uuuuuuuhhhhh this is my story.  
> Seriously don’t take anything stupid I write here seriously


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